River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-02-24
Renovation Of Exhausted Soils.

Renovation of Exhausted Soils.
"A paper read by Chas " Guy before the
Farmers institute held at River Falls, Dec. IL
The first inquiry pertinent to this
subject is, what elements of fertility
has the soil lost, or what does it need!
This can best be learned by knowing
what crops have been raised.
As far as the purposes of this dis
cussiOn are concerned, we will assume
the raising of wheat, year after year.
is chiefly the cause of exhaustion. For
exhausted soils, barnyard manure is
specific. 1t contains in proper proper
tons very nearly all the elements of
fertility required. Where manure is
available the problem is very simple.
Spread the manure on the field. cover
il up, leaveing it as near the surface as
the nature of the manure will admit.
Ii it is well rOtted the harrow will
cover it deep enough; if green and
strawy. pillow it under. In heavy soils
it acts in two ways beneticially. First
mechanically. by making the soil por-
Gus, giving freer admission to light, air,
water, etc., thus preventing what is
known as baking in dry weather. Sec
ond, chemically, by supplying in proper
proportion the elements which enter
into the grasses and grains.
There are very few farmers who do
not haul all the manure made in the
yards and around the barn and spread
it where it will do the most good.
Whel her manure hauled in winter
should be spread on the snow and ice
above the frozen ground is still ques-
ton. In practice each farmer can
Judge for himself. l prefer. when
haul from town. to pile it up, leaveing
it following OH top TO hold the water,
throw little earth ON it To absorb
the escaping ammonia, and leaveing it
To ferment till the foul seeds have lost
their vitality, and then spread it where
wanted when convenient. But the diff
ticulty is, the supply is short, when
the manure is gone, but small part
of land needing it has received it.
This brings up the quest on of burn
ing straw and the debris of the fields
and garden.
Ii IA farmer, who has not tried it,
should make a compost heap of all de-
Gazing vegetable matter, with the chips
anu ltdNOo ldhtu up aOoub OhC
ings and roadsides, and to this add all
soapy water from the sink and wash
room, or other house Stops, the size
and value of the pile would surprise
him, unless he had attained that state
of doubtful certainty where nothing
surprises.
The practice of burning straw, as
well as burning the prairies is nearly
| done away with. Still if one has no
stock to work the straw up it is better
to spread it as thin as may be over the
| field at time of threshiug, and burn i'm
mediately. A piece of, say four acres,
on which the straw grown on forty
acres has been evenly spread and
| burned. will show marked increase
| in crops for several years. While one
| can scarcely expect to make manure
| enough from given field to furnish a
| coating every year, or even every third
year, yet keeping stock, saving and
| hauling the entire product of the farm,
| except the pasture, using it as an alb
sorbent for the stables and baTnyard
| when wet, spreading so as to absorb
| the liquid elements in the yard, "a
much larger amount can be made than
| usually is made. Every acre of small
grain or hay should produce at least a
cord of manure when as well rotted as
| barnyard manure usually is when
hauled out; every acre of corn, if "a
paying crop, will produce twice as
Huch. In case efficiency from the
compost heap and barnyard, and none
to be obtained within "A reasonable dis
lance by hauling, then green crops
l 10 nvnsAad an nr "a Ct.Vat,lxr
Summer following necessitates the
loss of one season S rental for the land,
and requires nearly as much labor, ex.
cept harvesting, as is required to raise
"A paying crop. The rest the land gets,
repays in part for this loss. Our lands
when first broken up contained an
abundance of plant food. the accum u
lation Of ages of vegetable products,
made still richer by alkaline salts, the
result of many burnings of prairie and
forests. This supply is very far from
being exhausted. even in lands longest
under cultivation.
BY judicious system of rotation,
with the aid of dressing of snch man
ure as the barnyard affords, once in
each rotation of four or five years,
with an added coat of land plaster of
from one to two hundred pounds per
acre, sOwn as often as "a crop of grass
is raised, will, think insure a paying
crop. and improve, or at least prevent
deterioration for an indefinite length
of time.
The era of exclusive wheat raising
in this part of the st. Croix valley is
past. Most of the farmers have sold
the fertile elements of the soil with
their wheat. Nature and self-interest
have each called halt; one from ex-
haustiOn and the other from over. pro.
duetion. When more is produced than
the market demands the price falls
below cost of productions; allows no
adequate rental for the investment,
and the farmer suffers, as at the pres.
ent time. The remedy is a change OF
crops.
Appearances now point to stock rails
ing and dairyins rs the most ready sol.
ution of the difficulty. The farm must
be changed to produce food for stock
Wheat fields must make way for
meadows. This change must take ~
least years time or more to accom-
plish. Whatever is sold must be m
the most concentrated form, as beef,
pork, -four, wool, etc. Whatever is
bought should be in the coarser forms.
as bran and oil meal. These fed on the
farm will bring back most of the ele-
ments of fertility sold off. BY feeding
these coarse products to stock we get
pay for them in animal growth, and
have nearly the entire value for man.
ure left. With the keeping of stock a
rotation of crops is a necessity and
success probability. That | may be
better understood. let me suggest
system ! think feasible on almost
any farm where the elements of fer
tility are not wholly exhausted. Il
! the coarse products of the soil arr
worked up in the barnyard and eompos
. heap, as has been suggested. there viii
{ be manure sufficient for, say One-fiftI
5 the land under the pillow. The pastur,
! will be fertilized ty the stock eonsum
J ing the crop. SO we can dismiss tina
{ item fiom the discussion. Sufficien
: manure can probably be made annual,